System crashed with nothing working (question mark, os symbol etc.)

After leaving system in sleep mode overnight, came back to startup and system had crashed. Once restarting the unit makes a scratchy beeping noise approximately 3 times spaced out by 10-20 seconds. Then screen goes to flashing question mark and os symbol folder.
I have tried the following to resolve:
1. Reboot holding down Shift key - Did not work
2. Reboot holding down Option key - Did not work
3. Rebooted (holding down the C button) with most recent OS X Tiger system/install cd - This caused the system to start to the Grey Apple symbol and then it went to a grey 'Do Not Enter' symbol and freezes/stops.
4. Rebooted (holding down the C button) with Hardware Diagnostic CD - Was able to run Hardware diagnosis and found no problems. I used the Restart command in this software and system had same issues.
5. Rebooted (holding down the C button)with Apple Care Protection CD and this caused flashing diskette with question mark.
Nothing appears to work and it appears I am on my way to Cafe' Mac (my local Apple store) for serious repairs. I can not lose the hard drive contents (pictures and everything that I do not have backed up).
Any help or advice to get my system back to normal would be greatly appreciated....
Thanks in advance.
iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Sure, use either Mac... but it all depends if your old MacBook will boot into Firewire target disk mode.
If it does just pop in the DVD (in the good DVD drive) and install. I'd suggest a reformat also, under the circumstances.
To use FireWire target disk mode
1. Make sure that the target computer is turned off. If you are using a PowerBook or iBook as the target computer, you should also plug in its AC power adapter.
2. Use a FireWire cable to connect the target computer to a host computer. The host computer does not need to be turned off.
3. Start up the target computer and immediately press and hold down the T key until the FireWire icon appears. The hard disk of the target computer should become available to the host computer and will likely appear on desktop. (If the target computer is running Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you can also open System Preferences, choose Startup Disk, and click Target Disk Mode. Then restart the computer and it will start up in Target Disk Mode.)
4. When you are finished copying files, drag the target computer's hard disk icon to the Trash or select Put Away from the File menu (Mac OS 9) or Eject from the File menu (Mac OS X).
5. Press the target computer's power button to turn it off.
6. Unplug the FireWire cable.
If the target computer's hard disk does not become available to the host computer, check the cable connections and restart the host computer.
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack

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Think this is a good, one... Here is the story:
Some apps will crash, that always happens, right? So I did not pay much attention to it until it was way too often. Learned about disk utility, repaired permissions on a regular basis and moved on. But then... One day disk utility told me there was something that could NOT be repaired. I ran and bought an External HD (usb.. not a good choice, but I found out that too late for an exchange). Backing up from there on was kind of a weekly thing.
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Ok... seemed like it liked it.. but after a little while, strange things happened again, and after the restart, the blinking folder with the question mark again...
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Installed the software on the new HD.. everything looks fine... for a few minutes. I tried to use right away what I use everyday to see if it works: web browser, iTunes, Activity Monitor, played a dvd perhaps, etc... And..? Nop... started crashing again... Got the blinking question mark after restart, etc. But now.. the hardware tests reports me no problems.
Ok... it was not the HD, but I already bought one, and installed it myself!... lets move on and see where is my problem.
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This model has only one slot of removable ram, and a built-in DIMM that I cannnot replace +(or can I?)+, so I remove the one I can, and restart it without it. First it looks fine again, everything is working, but after a while it starts crashing again. So.. it's not the ram... or at least it's not +this one+.
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(I started this post on my iBook, and I was like 2/3rd's through when I got the ball... and no response at all... tried force-quit... and nothing, had to power off..AND start this post all over again on my girlfriend's!!! )
So here I am... Of course I want to take it back to the guys at the MacStore and
complain about their poor job... But does anyone here has a good idea of what could it be?
My thoughts are something like this: Seems like if you do not use a lot of memory (I only have 512 Mb total, so a lot of it comes from the virtual, right?) it works fine, but somehow if it reaches a point where it needs more than a certain amount it would crash. I dont know if this even makes sense, but that's my feeling. The guys at the MacStore told me that they tested around 100 times restarting the computer and it looked fine, so yeah... if all they did was use a software to restart once and again, and again... without really using the memory, they would not see the problem, right? The problem comes later.. when you use the iBook.
Could it be then that the problem comes from the ram that is built-in? If so.. can this be replaced? Is it worth it? Can I do it myself?
Too many questions...
Any thoughts would be more than welcome and...
Thanks for reading all the post!
E

yeah....
the problem is that I do not have a firewire external HD, and it will not boot from my usb external...
Anyway... I am back from the MacStore and the guys told me that the next step would be to replace/work on the logic board, and that that was too expensive a job to do an an old iBook like mine, they did not recommend it to anyone (they told me they charge between 600-800 dlrs for this kind of job).
So... seems like my iBook is in a very bad shape.
I saw DT&T online and it seems like they do the job for half the price of the MacStore (before shipping costs), but... still, is it worth it?
I was thinking in the possibility to find someone who sells a used iBook in pieces because of a crashed screen or something, to get another logic board and try to replace it myself, but... is this something an amateur can do by himself?
Haven't checked ifixit.com for that yet.
Any ideas??
Thanks..
Edgar

System crashed with nothing working (question mark, os symbol etc.)

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